Double digits!

It's quite something, turning double digits! Can you believe it... my boy is 10 years old!
He's TEN years old!

He had a wonderful birthday morning, with lots and lots of presents to open - all the special things he had been wishing for. A Nerf target practice set, a cool ripstick, a Lego City set he's wanted forever, a particular pencil case he has been eyeing up, a V2 Hexbug set and an Infinity game for his Xbox, with some extra figurines.

We had a special birthday breakfast in our festive kitchen - American pancakes! Such a treat, on a school morning!

Happy Birthday my big boy!

The last of the thirty-something

It's a Sunday night, and even though I'm alone, I thought I deserved a little glass of red tonight after a very long week. Also I thought it would be nice to celebrate this last night of being thirty-something!!

Plus, you are never really alone. Here's my glass...

... and on another bar not very far from here, a good friend has poured herself a glass too! Thanks to WhatsApp we could cheer together, to many more lovely birthdays to come!

One done, eight to go

So, one week done. Eight to go...
I'm a little bit worried as to what the rest of our time here has in store for us, as this week certainly has been slightly challenging for this temporarily single Mum already.

We had three power cuts over two nights. Not so much fun spending two evenings, all by yourself, in a total blackout. Luckily the kids could fall asleep anyway, and the bonus for me was that I had to go to bed early since there wasn't much else to do - so I got some much needed extra sleep.

Our kids are very rarely sick. They've actually had terms with 0% absence from school! Although every now and then, things happen... This week Linnea had a close encounter with a wall one morning. She was playing "it" before school, and got pushed head first into a wall = scrapes all over her face, shoulder, arm and knee... :(

I got the call from the school nurse already at 08.03, so back I had to go to school to get her again. Little one, it really doesn't look very nice.

Apart from these happenings slightly out of the ordinary, it has been a rather normal week. Hash, tidying up, work, selling stuff, school, kids birthday parties, sleepovers, Yacht Club, and a lot of driving around as usual.
Bring on the next one.

Hmmm...

When Lucas hair was wet at the Yacht Club today, I noticed it looked a bit funny:

I took a photo to show him and asked:
- "What on earth did the hairdresser do to you last time you had your haircut?!"

Lucas said hesitantly:
- "Well, it might have happened at school...", and then he ran away again.

Hm. There I was, pondering, what did he mean "might"? You would think you would notice wouldn't you, if something like that "happened" to you, ha ha. So I told him I wasn't angry, I just wanted to know what happened and then the truth slowly came out.
Apparently one of his friends had accidently (?) cut some of his hair off, during a maths (??) lesson... Ok, hm. Well, don't do that. Just don't cut anybody's hair, at school, ever. Ok?

Needless to say, he now has a very short fringe, after I had to "fix" it up and even it out..! That might teach him a lesson! :)

It's raining, it's pouring

We are experiencing some abnormal weather at the moment. I say abnormal, because usually when it rains here, it pours down for a couple of hours max, and then the sun comes back.
Now, it's been raining, literally, for the last two days and nights - non-stop! Big floods cover the roads, and someone even claims they saw fish on the road..! :D

The usual raining season for SE Asia is November to April, which was the case years ago. I guess with global warming etc the weather changed and we haven't really had "rainy season" for the last couple of years. With the last couple of days, it sure seems like it's gone full cycle, and we are back to norm!

Last time we saw rains like this, in 2008, most of Brunei was flooded and the rain caused big problems. This is a photo from back then, it's the Gadong/Kiulap tunnel, or underpass under the big roundabout. It was completely full of water at one stage!

We had a power cut last night, that lasted about four hours, just from bedtime until midnight. The kids didn't like it, but managed to fall asleep, and so did I. I went to bed about 9pm, since there just wasn't much else to do!
We won't have weather like this in Abu Dhabi!

62 days

So, Nathan left last night on the last flight out of here, to Jakarta with RBA to pick up the Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi.

He is on his way to start our new life, which means that the countdown for the rest of us has now officially started. If everything goes according to plan, we now have 62 days left in the Abode. That's nine weeks, and 81 more school runs...

I know it will go quickly, especially when I will be looking back at it from the other end - but right now, it feels really long; more so since we don't know if Nathan will be able to come back and see us somewhere in the middle or if this is it. For nine weeks.

But I can do this. We can do this. It'll all be worth it in the end.

The Garden Party

The Yacht Club was so nice to organize a big Garden Party for Nathan on his last evening in Brunei. Well, maybe it wasn't just for Nathan, but we took it that way - nearly all our friends joined us there to say goodbye.
They had made the Yacht Club look really nice, and really different to normal. We started out by mingling to some live music:

Everybody looked really nice! Lots of bright, colourful, flowery dresses:

The lamb on the spit had been slow cooking all day, nom nom nom!

The food was so different to the "normal" Yacht Club party food, super delicious, especially the lamb and the seafood. Mmm! We had the best table in the corner:

 What a lovely night it was, and how nice to get to spend it with our friends.

Our favourite lunch

Our last family lunch here in Brunei was enjoyed at sushi, of course.
We had a big, big lunch on Saturday with all our favourites. I don't think sushi is quite as cheap in Abu Dhabi, and even if it is, it might not be just as good, so we will have to enjoy it now while we can!

More farewells

Friday night was time for another farewell party. This time for our Loan Service friends Lee and Anne, who are on their way back to England right now.
It was a nice evening with good friends, spicy Indian food and many laughs. Our little group is getting smaller and smaller...:

Linnea also went to her friend Henry's last play at a playland on Saturday, and her and I did see them again Sunday afternoon too, at the Yacht Club. Just a couple of hours before they actually took off. Here Linnea and Henry are posing for me. They did hug goodbye, but I didn't want to embarrass them and take a photo of that. Cuties.

BWN-HKG-BWN

Nathan's last flight with RBA was a Hong Kong, with F/O Julian and David, a new Captain, on the jump seat. Nice weather and good company made for a great last flight.

There he goes

There he goes - off on his last flight operating for Royal Brunei Airlines. End of an era.

No happy dance today

We're going back to school today for our last term in Brunei and it's also Nathan's last week here. (Last this, last that... yuk)
Normally I would be doing my little happy dance across the parking lot after having dropped the kids off, looking forward to getting home to a quiet, really enjoyable cup of coffee in my lonesomeness.
Not today.

Not only didn't we have a single bean of coffee in the house, but Lucas woke up and didn't feel very well, which is rather unusual for him, so I had to send him back to bed.
I then got downstairs to our Amah telling me that the dogs had fought a snake in the night, and she was sure it was a cobra. The snake was outside dead, but unfortunately so was one of our dogs... He must have been marked by the snake in the fight. :(
Poor Mocha, he has fought quite a few monitor lizards and snakes before, and even killed a few - until now always unharmed. I guess it was just a question of time, as he never backed away from a fight with any reptile. He really was our best protector, and he always did his job. He died a hero.
Love you buddy, thank you for looking after us. ♥

Flat Mallory

The day before Christmas Linnea received a special letter through the mail. It was a letter from her Canadian friend Mallory who left Brunei last July and moved to Denver, Colorado. She wrote that they were studying geography at the moment in school, and had read the book "Flat Stanley". Her class got to make flat duplicates of themselves, to send to special friends, and Mallory had chosen Linnea.

Flat Stanley is the hero of a series children's books written by Jeff Brown.
Stanley Lambchop was just an ordinary boy until one night a bulletin board fell off his bedroom wall and squashed him.  Stanley was unhurt, but flat. Stanley soon discovered that being flat had its advantages, and the books tell of Stanley's many adventures. One of the benefits of Stanley's diminished size is that he can be posted to visit his friends. Send Stanley off, and see what happens!

We had to be a bit quick doing our part with Flat Mallory, since she should've been back to their school on the 9th of December (...), but she will be going back today - together with some postcards and souvenirs from her trip to Brunei! You are supposed to take your visitor on adventures, but since we haven't done much this last part of the Christmas holidays, Flat Mallory only came one day to the Yacht Club with us:

She seemed to like the sun and the sea though, although she couldn't go swimming of course...

Look out Mallory - your flat counterpart is on her way back to you!

Bring it on!

On this New Years Day, we are not just turning the page into a new chapter of our life, this family is opening a whole new book!
It's now less than two weeks until the change begins, less than two weeks until Nathan is leaving Brunei for good. 2014 will truly be a fresh start for our family.

Sure, the kids and I don't follow until March, but we all know how fast time flies! It'll come around so quickly. Yesterday, as I cleaned out the Christmas decorations, I packed my first box:

The decorations went straight into a moving box. The first box.
Oaahhh... It's really happening, and soon..!

I think, with the whole "party season" now finally behind us, and Nathan's departure now being so imminent, I've finally passed the phase of "oh-my-God-are-we-really-leaving-that-makes-me-so-sad" and I've entered the "yeah-we-are-off-on-a-new-adventure-and-I-can't-wait-!"-phase instead.
Bring it on!

The last supper

On our last New Years Eve in Brunei, we celebrated pretty much like last year (maybe we've created a nice tradition here?), with a yummy fondue dinner at home.
Nathan was scheduled to work (again!) on New Years Day so not much choice really, but - it's still my favourite way to do it. I've never been much of a big NYE party girl.

We invited the Turners as well, it was really nice to end this special year, and share this special evening with good friends.
They had never done a fondue, so it was a first for them! We started with some salmon, caviar and crème fraîche, on waffles:

Then it was time for the fondue, we had three different kinds of meat, lots of veggies and sauces - mmm! It's such a nice way of enjoying your food, you don't get full so quickly as it takes a while to cook it! Kids were so excited, they vividly remembered last years dinner, and they enjoyed it just as much this year, especially Linnea.

Hannah and Tash had made the dessert, Pavlova of course!

Before we knew it, it was time to jump into the new year! (Danish tradition) We had the countdown going on the iPad and coins in our hands, all ready to go!

Happy New Year from all of us!

I wonder where we will be celebrating next NYE..? It sure is going to be a very exciting year for this Watson family... Abu Dhabi, here we come! Bring it on!